A familiar, sad tale.

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

Funny you should say that but watching at the Commonwealth had me thinking about bowls! Played a few times with my Dad as a youngster and was naturally adept it would seem. Recall playing in Torquay on holiday and the old guys all watching and saying "did that young girl just do that" much to my Dad's irritation as I was thrashing him! One on the back burner for me if I ever feel like the OP for too long. Have been going through a bit of a torrid time since my cut to 6 and it's not been enjoyable at times on the course. There's just nowhere to hide and so little room for error now. so I get more tense if things start to go awry. I've worked very hard though and am turning things around and hoping to bounce back stronger...

It's a tough game allright!

Green bowls is brilliant. But no time for it at the moment.

 

[CMAC]

I know others have posted similar threads but I never thought I would be going down the same road.

After 44 years I seem to have fallen out of love with the game. It is now very difficult for me to summon the enthusiasm to put my clubs in the boot and head to the Club of which I have happily been a member for over 32 years.

Never been a great player with my best handicap having been 13, a figure I stayed around for a number of years until about eight or nine years ago when it started to gradually creep up and now stands at a most disappointing 20.

My game, particularly round the greens has become an embarrassment and no amount of lessons and practice seems able to cure it, and now I seem to have reached the stage where I no longer care. Arthritis and other physical complaints have not helped either.

I have always been a new gear "addict" but now find I cannot be bothered to even look in the shops or on line.

So, come the end of October when my subscription next falls due I really do think it may be a case of "thanks for the memories" and the clubs confined to a dark corner in the garage.

Hope this does not seem too self-pitying it's just that I never thought this would happen to me.

stick the clubs in the garage/cupboard and get on with anything else.

Ignore golf and your eyes will be opened to having the time to do things you never had the time for as golf takes 3.5hrs playing and when you factor in preparation, travel, 19th hole its 5 hrs out of a short weekend.

Just think what you could achieve/do with friends/family or just for yourself in 5 hrs.

Dump the clubs and you'll instantly feel relieved and happier, and have more money in your pocket.


You can always come back to it, golf aint going away.

 

[Hacker Khan]

Blimey, as it's my birthday today I was happy in the haze of a drunken hour, but after reading this thread heaven knows I'm miserable now.

I hope those who have fallen out of love with the game get through it. Myself I have kind of come to the conclusion that I am never going to be consistently that good at golf, I can shoot in the mid 80s and on the next round I get an attack of the smothered hooks with anything under an 7 iron and am equally as capable of shooting into the 100s.

Yes it's a bit crap when one day I can drive it 290 yards (with very strong wind behind, rock hard fairways) and the next I am playing very badly and duck hooking drives more yards to the rights (I'm a lefty) than it goes forwards, but I feel that acceptance of the fact helps me.

I spent too long fritting and worrying why I was not getting any better, as I am a reasonably sporty person so it's not as if I am uncoordinated. But I have now kind of accepted it, enjoy the good days and try not to worry to much about the bad ones. But I admit that is easily said than done at times.

Also the other thing that helps is that when i am playing like a eejut I just look at other golfers and think, I could probably thrash you at badminton. Kind of realising that (most) people are not good at every sport.

 

[Doon frae Troon]

Hacker,
Not really fallen out of love with the game just stopped enjoying playing for a number of reasons.
Carried on for a couple of years playing for fun but it was not the same.
Still have the clubs but if my SIL asks me for a game at Turnberry I would probably say no thanks.
If my daughter asks for 9 holes at the local 9 holer to sort her swing out I would say yes.

I was fairly talented at other sports as a teenager but stuck to golf.
Played from Pro to 5 handicap for 40 years so I have had my time in the sun.
That is probably why I am enjoying my bowls.
I know a couple of Golf pro's who relax with a game of bowls as well.

 

[Hacker Khan]

Hacker,
Not really fallen out of love with the game just stopped enjoying playing for a number of reasons.
Carried on for a couple of years playing for fun but it was not the same.
Still have the clubs but if my SIL asks me for a game at Turnberry I would probably say no thanks.
If my daughter asks for 9 holes at the local 9 holer to sort her swing out I would say yes.

I was fairly talented at other sports as a teenager but stuck to golf.
Played from Pro to 5 handicap for 40 years so I have had my time in the sun.
That is probably why I am enjoying my bowls.
I know a couple of Golf pro's who relax with a game of bowls as well.

Turning down a game at Turnberry!!! You can go off some people you know.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

Sad news. I hope a break, or some social only golf, gets the mojo back

 

[granters]

Woaf! Same here! I can't remember the last time i enjoyed a game! I play about every 2 weeks now, and will soldier on until the end of the season but i get the feeling that will be that. It's too expensive not to enjoy (incidentally i'm not sad about it or anything, it's only a game)

I've found myself playing in various medals and comps on a Saturday really wanting to be somewhere else pretty much all year. I think the main thing is the 5 odd hours away on a Saturday, especially if it's a slow round. I tried playing about with equipment at the start of the year to fire up the interest, and have played not too badly, but cannot seem to get the interest back. I get more enjoyment from a few hours on the ukulele these days.

Taking a break is always good advice, it's worked for me in the past but if you take a break and don't miss it then you've told yourself something. I might just go out at the weekend and shoot 66 so i'm not counting my chickens but if you don't enjoy it, chuck it! none of us earn a living from it after all

 

[backwoodsman]

Sorry to hear MM's plight. Only hope you can work through it. When all's said and done, if you don't enjoy, then there's not much point putting yourself into despair.

As slightly off thread comment - bowls is a cracking alternative (first played myself whilst at college). But it has to be proper bowls, on a proper green. With a crown on it. The up & down stuff on a flat green doesn't come close.

 

[Hacker Khan]

Sorry to hear MM's plight. Only hope you can work through it. When all's said and done, if you don't enjoy, then there's not much point putting yourself into despair.

As slightly off thread comment - bowls is a cracking alternative (first played myself whilst at college). But it has to be proper bowls, on a proper green. With a crown on it. The up & down stuff on a flat green doesn't come close.

You mean ten pin?

 

[HomerJSimpson]

At the risk if this becoming a "whoa is me" thread, I feel your pain.
For the first time ever I walked off the course this week without completing my round. This has to be the most disappointing season I have ever experienced. I have never practiced so much and yet it seems I am going backwards and I have begun to realise my h'cap is as low as it is going to get, that there is no magic bullet and it isn't going to get any better. All of this is, of course, bitterly disappointing. I always thought I would get much lower.
Like most of us, I guess, I have some golfing commitments to fulfil over the next couple of weeks, but after that I have pretty much decided to call it a season and see how I feel next March. This is incredibly hard to do, especially when you consider the money you pay for membership and the fact that last winter I would have killed to be able to play in such nice weather.
There seems to be some good advice on here, particularly I think in relation to just playing bounce games or social golf to take the pressure off. Maybe I will look at that.
I sincerely hope that you (and I) resolve our golfing issues and we are both back on the course, enthusiasm restored soon. Just remember, this is a really, really difficult game that bears no resemblance to reality. For no reason whatsoever, fortunes can change and you can and probably will start playing well again very soon. That, as everyone keeps telling me, is golf. I live in hope.

A lot of that sounds so familiar especially in 2013. Having worked hard the preceding winter I was confident of playing well and getting down towards single figures. I played abysmally throughout and some real low points where I was close to walking off too. I kept having lessons but couldn't make a breakthrough but kept grinding away on drills, practice balls and playing. The game almost became irrelevant knowing each 18 would be four more hours of hell.

I kept at it and last winter was much better. I've come out playing better despite not quite getting the cuts I want or think I deserve as I'm throwing a couple of bad holes in when going well. A trait I need to fix. I'm a stubborn old sod and so its become a case of mind over matter and I have not got anything in sport without sheer hard work and so I'm trying to enjoy it, do well and see where I end up.

I hope you work through it as I do with the OP. It's a fickle game at best but chin up

 

[Deleted member 18588]

Before this thread disappears I would just like to thank all who have posted.

I was concerned that the OP might have been seen as more than a little self-indulgent and suitable for being ignored or ridiculed but I have been really impressed by the positive and supportive nature of the replies.

Thanks to you all for providing me with more than sufficient reasons to think this through a little further.